


Troika

by ArwenLune



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Drift Bond, F/M, I fail at PWP, Jaeger Pilots, M/M, Multi, Pre-Threesome, Rare Pairings, Stacker needs hugs, Threesome, Threesome - F/M/M, Touch-Starved, this is more like Plot What-Oh THIS Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-15
Updated: 2014-09-15
Packaged: 2018-02-17 12:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2309819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/pseuds/ArwenLune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The bar is loud and full, a slow beat just audible under a solid wall of chatter in Russian. It's fancy, for Vladivostok; Stacker Pentecost suspects it isn't where the Kaidanovskys normally drink, but it's where they've taken him tonight. It also isn't where any of the Shatterdome crew drink, which might be the point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Troika

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be PWP but I still fail at writing porny stuff, so there you go..

The bar is loud and full, a slow beat just audible under a solid wall of chatter in Russian. It's fancy, for Vladivostok; Stacker Pentecost suspects it isn't where the Kaidanovskys normally drink, but it's where they've taken him tonight. It also isn't where any of the Shatterdome crew drink, which might be the point.

They're in a half-round booth at the back, shielded from view of most of the bar. Shielded from most of the noise, too – it's low enough here that they can have a conversation, though they haven't much, so far. It's the first time in months – maybe longer – that he doesn't have to be the Marshall, and Stacker finds he doesn't have much to talk about. Sasha has asked about Mako, who hasn't accompanied him for the first time. Stacker enjoys the way the Russian pilots, but especially Sasha, have taken an interest in Mako. It seems like an unlikely friendship, but whenever the two women meet they're like sisters. Stacker is well aware that growing up in the predominantly male world of the shatterdome, few things are as important for his daughter as female friends and confidantes. Especially those that understand something of life in Shatterdomes.

He hopes by now she will have found some at the Academy.

Stacker allows himself to slump in the booth, ever present tension seeping out of his spine. He's not drunk, but he's pleasantly fuzzy around the edges. Being out of the Shatterdome and the pressure of being the one with all the answers feels like having taken an anvil off his shoulders. Sasha Kaidanovsky grins approvingly, raising her glass to him. Her knee knocks against his as she slides toward him in the half-round bar booth, making space for Aleksis, who has gotten them more vodka and another pitcher of water.

"Ah, our diabolical plan is working, yes?" he rumbles, putting the bottle down.

"Plan?" Stacker lifts an eyebrow.

"To make you relax," Sasha says, leaning in conspiratorially. "You looked like you needed this, no?"

He's still thinking if to agree or deny when he realises how close she is, and that there is definitely a flirty edge to the curl of her lips. Thinking about it, it's been there all night, but he hadn't realised before now. Huh. Rumour has it they're not the most conventional couple, but nobody flirts with the Marshall. He wasn't expecting a come-on.

He doesn't think to make space, but he doesn't act either, even though the realisation surfaces that he might wants to. Aleksis is looking on with something of fondness. After a moment that's exactly long enough to feel an entirely different kind of tension settling into his stomach, Sasha backs off a little and drops some amusing gossip about the Anchorage Shatterdome.

For a while Stacker thinks there might be merit to the rumours about the Kaidanovskys being mutants who drink vodka like water. Then he notices that Sasha's accent has gotten a little heavier, and when she leaves to go to the bathroom she isn't moving in her usual brisk, efficient manner. (Aleksis still seems unaffected, if maybe a little easier with his words and smiles. Then again, he is a large man, and Stacker says that as a large man himself who isn't used to tilting his head back to speak with somebody.)

When Sasha returns she exchanges some kind of silent conversation with Aleksis which mostly seems to consist of repressed laughter and raised eyebrows. Then she plants herself sideways across the man's lap. She overbalances a little, and Stacker plants a quick hand in the middle of her back to prevent her from toppling backward. She laughs, and he gets a little distracted by the feeling of her bra-strap through her thin t-shirt, by the heat of her skin under his hand.

Aleksis' large hand is on her thigh, thumb stroking idly over her jeans, and Stacker gets momentarily mesmerised by the sweep of it, back and forth. Then he realises that he hasn't removed his hand from Sasha's back, and that she's leaning into it a little with a pleased hum.

She gives Aleksis a misschievous smile and kisses him, and the three of them are sitting so close, it's right next to Stacker's face. He thinks for a moment he should be feeling like he's too much, like he should leave. But Aleksis has his shoulder warmly against Stacker, and Sasha is still leaning into his hand, and he feels included somehow, part of their little circle of intimacy.

It doesn't seem strange at all when, once the kiss winds down, Sasha leans back a little, relying on his hand to balance her, and looks at Stacker with kiss-swollen lips, face close to his. He feels Aleksis chuckle warmly, and allows himself not to hesitate. Allows himself to place a hand along her jaw and draw her in, kissing her.

It starts sweet, but she quickly tries to take over the kiss and before he knows it they are each trying to overwhelm the other. They both end up breathing hard, grinning with their faces inches apart.

"We should go," Aleksis says, and for a moment Stacker thinks he misunderstood, overstepped the boundaries of whatever is going on here. But Sasha slithers off their laps and gives them both a heated smile as she pulls on her coat, and he figures he's probably okay.

"You should come to our quarters tonight," Aleksis says as they walk back to the Shatterdome. They are flanking him, a little closer than is professional. Stacker nods in acknowledgement, trying to hang on to his happy vodka buzz and not overthink this. The cool air isn't making it easy.

What was he thinking? He's their superior. He's the Marshall, and he kissed one half of one of his pilot teams and he kind of wants to kiss the other half too and he is actually considering going to their quarters.

They don't say anything else, and when they arrive at the Vladivostok Shatterdome, Stacker thanks them for the night out. Once they are out of sight of the entrance guards Aleksis gives him a questioning sideways glance.

"Maybe," Stacker says, though he thinks ' _Probably not_.'

Five minutes later he is in the shower of the guest quarters he is using, cursing himself.

Because for the many reasons this is clearly a terrible idea, all he can think about is the feel of the two of them bracketing him, and the manic hilarity in Sasha's eyes after that kiss. And Mako definitely won't hear about this. And barring hugs from Mako before she left for the Jaeger Academy, it's entirely likely that the only times he's been touched since he lost Tamsin as his partner have been during medical exams.

He has known the Kaidanovskys a long time, long enough to know that there is no power inequality here. He is ultimately in command of them, but that just means he takes the overview and they handle the ground detail. He's also known them long enough to trust that they know what they are doing. That they won't do anything that will risk affecting their Drift bond. They are the most solid, stable pilot team he knows, and whatever might happen, this won't mess the two of them up or out of alignment. If he's going to do something wildly inadvisable and reckless like engaging in a threesome with a pilot team, these are the people to do it with. The people he wants to do it with.

Ten minutes later he is knocking on the door of their quarters, resisting the urge to double check nobody is seeing him. Nobody is, which is a good thing when Aleksis opens, bare-chested.

He immediately opens the door wider and steps aside to admit Stacker. Sasha is sitting on the edge of the bed, long legs bare.

"We did not think you would come," she says, surprised but pleased.

The Kaidanovskies have quarters which consist of two ordinary rooms pulled together. It's a normal amount of space for two people, though it's unlikely anybody but a pilot couple would have succeeded in talking the PPDC into having the dividing wall broken out. There's an ensuite bathroom with shower, and a small kitchen counter. Stacker stops just inside the door and blinks, because their bed is _enormous_. How the hell did they manage to procure that?

"Ah, capitalism," Aleksis grins, seeing him look. "When we were heroes, bed company wanted to give us this."

Stacker notes the 'when' in the same way he notes the traces of a more prosperous time among the PPDC issue items in the room. Back when the Jaeger program was new and favoured and its pilots were rock stars.

Aleksis and Sasha exchange a glance, and Stacker can almost feel the bond between them. Call it ghost-drifting, call it synchronicity due to long and intensely close association. He misses having that, misses Tamsin – will always miss Tamsin, like a physical ache.

Sasha makes an impatient sound and pushes past Aleksis and Stacker to close the door, a little closer than she needs to be. Stacker trails a hand along her arm with no other thought than to make the connection, be a part of this, of them.

She rounds on him with slightly too much momentum, and they collide into a kiss. It's a glorious, grinning battle for control. She nips his lower lip, and a low sound escapes him. He breaks away a little to lick the sting, but it's not bleeding. They've sparred in the kwoon a few times, back when she was fresh out of the Academy and he not yet Marshall. He remembers what she looks like when she's trying to up the intensity, and he obliges by pushing her back a pace, until she is halted by Aleksis' massive chest, huffing a surprised laugh into his mouth at the impact.

He has no illusion that they aren't perfectly aware of each other's bodies at all times – he can still remember how his own proprioception extended to Tamsin's body. He hasn't taken anybody unawares here, because Aleksis chuckles at the collision and wraps his arms around Sasha and Stacker as if this had been the plan all along.

Maybe it was. Stacker gets distracted from kissing Sasha by two pair of strong hands roaming his back, his shoulders, down along his spine. One of Aleksis' huge hands cups the back of his skull, and when Stacker opens his eyes the other man is looking at him over Sasha's head. He understands the slight eyebrow raise, the careful unspoken question. He doesn't hesitate.

Sasha kisses like she fights: all power and fire, always striving, always pushing. Like touching a live wire. Aleksis kisses slow and careful, like somebody who knows his body is a weapon and has learned to keep it in check. It explains everything Stacker's ever wondered about how they operate in their Jaeger, but he pushes the thought away with a huff of breath, trying not to think of them as pilots right now, just as people.

Stacker is a tall man, and it's beyond strange to be kissed by somebody taller still, but he lets himself sink into the kiss, into the hands and the feeling of Sasha's lips on his throat. She is squashed in between their larger bodies, but she seems to be enjoying herself there, undulating in a slow, maddening sort of way against them.

" _llubimy_ ," Sasha murmurs to Aleksis, and then Stacker finds himself helped out of his jumper, and they move toward the bed. He ends up in between them on that giant bed – even with the three of them there's still space to move.

Somehow he'd pictured this as a hard and fast sort of encounter, as blowing off steam, but things slow down again.

For what feels like an eternity there's just taking turns for slow kisses and sweeping hands. He hasn't ever exactly been a passive man, but Sasha and Aleksis seem to have a plan he is happy to go along with. Currently Aleksis is languidly sucking on his tongue while Sasha is trailing her blunt nails in long lines over his body, following the drive suit scars, until his skin feels like it is buzzing.

When Sasha puts her teeth to the skin of his side, just under his lowest rib, he would have jolted upright if Aleksis wasn't leaning over his torso, and she chuckles against his skin. The warm contrast of it abruptly transforms the relaxed hum of shis skin into arousal, and he can't hold back a small moan low in his throat.

 

Years later, when he goes to Vladivostok to supervise the closing of the Shatterdome and organise the transport of its last Jaeger, he sticks a yellow note to their final transfer paperwork.

He's been with Sasha and Aleksis a few more times over the years, but they've always left it up to him to approach. It was made abundantly clear that he was welcome any time and not just in bed, but they've always been mindful of his position and of how much he needs to keep this private, secret. He's always been paranoid about his personal life. Never wanted to risk anybody finding out, least of all Mako.

Maybe too paranoid. Maybe in the final days of war, at the end of the world...

 

**Author's Note:**

> and then a couple weeks later when they've all gotten out of hospital, there's cuddling. That's how it goes. Just saying.


End file.
